The true doctrine of justification asserted and vindicated, from the errors of Papists, Arminians,…The true doctrine of justification asserted and vindicated, from the errours of Papists, Arminians,…

First, There is in God a liberty and free-will, whereby he doth whatsoever he pleaseth, so that as the Psalmist saith, He that made the eye to see, shall not he see? He that maketh man to know, shall not he know? and thus he that gave man and Angels this perfection of freedom, shall not he much more be free? ¹Therefore those titles of [Greek or Hebrew] and [Greek or Hebrew], which the Greek Fathers sometimes give to the will of man, are too proud and lofty, and do more properly belong to God. Indeed so far as freedom is conceived in creatures to have some potential [Greek or Hebrew] indifferency, or [Greek or Hebrew], a suspendedness to be determined by some other, so far we are not to conceive it in God; for this mutability or Potential indetermination, is an imperfection; and so that same potest as peccandi, power to sin, which some make necessary to liberty, and which they call a perfection ▪ though they grant the action of sin it self to be an imperfection (though this should be granted, which must not) yet neither could this be found in Gods liberty, and no marvel, seeing that it is not in the liberty of Christs humane will, for though Christs obedience was truly and properly so, being under a command of God, yet not only as he was God, but as he was man, he was [Greek or Hebrew], and [Greek or Hebrew] impeccablo, or free from the temptation of sin. Therefore its detestable blasphemy of Durand and other Schoolmen, saying, Christ might have sinned, lib. 3. Sentent. dist. 12. quae. 2. as also of the Remonstrants who say, Christ after he had taken this Office of a mediatorship, might have forsaken it, and given it over, but of this more in its proper place; God therefore is a free agent, Psal. 135.6. He hath done whatsoever he pleased in heaven and earth, so that he made not the world as the fire burneth, or the Bees make their Honey-Combs, by a natural necessity, but according to the counsel of his will; hence it is that all his spiritual mercies become ⟨p. 96⟩commended unto us, under the title of grace. There was no natural or moral necessity, obliging God to elect us, to give his Son for us, or to save us, and indeed it could not be liberality, if it were not a libero, from one that is free.

First, There is in God a liberty and free-will, whereby he doth whatsoever he pleaseth, so that as the Psalmist saith, He that made the eye to see, shall not he see? He that maketh man to know, shall not he know? and thus he that gave man and Angels this perfection of freedom, shall not he much more be free?